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Disney toys made in ‘sweatshops’

FACTORY staff making some of Walt Disney's most popular Christmas toys are working up to 18 hours a day for as little as 16p an hour, an investigation has found.

Workers at the factories in southern China also claim they have had to stay in cramped dormitories housing up to 16 people and that they are fined if they spend more than five minutes in the lavatory. At one factory they receive just one day off a month.

The factories make Minnie Mouse toys and soft toys based on the Tigger and Eeyore characters from Disney's Winnie the Pooh films. Disney's British stores sell Chinese-made toys of these characters for up to £60, but it is not known if this includes any toys produced at the two factories investigated.

John Hilary, director of policy at War on Want, said: "These toys have been produced as a result of the exploitation